Month: October 2011

Hello everyone, the weather co-operated today and we were able to get back out on the water with a small cruise ship group who were down from Saint John. We took them straight off towards South Wolf where we found a fin whale and 3 humpbacks; Cork, Ibex and Wheat. Just as we were about to leave Cork popped up beside the boat and we had an amazing close encounter with her, she checked us out and circled the boat before moving on her way, I simply ADORE that whale!

The large fin whale we saw with the humpbacks

Wheat, born in 2007 to Sickle

Ibex, born in 1988 to Petrel

And Cork, born in 2002 to Mica, I have seen her every season since 2004 and have I mentioned I adore her.

Thanks for staying in touch this season, I will try and put together an “End of Season” post soon.

Hello all, well, this is always such a hard time for me, our 2011 season has come to a close but at least the final whale watches were incredible!

Today we spent time with 6 humpbacks past the Wolves, there were others in the area we could see at a distance so there were probably 10 or so in total but I was able to ID 6 individuals. Here is who we saw today

2009 calf of Siphon, a young female

2008 calf of Tether

2008 calf of Peedee

Fray

Wheat, the 2007 calf of Sickle

and an Unknown we also saw on October 7, 8 & 10

We also had a large finback with the humpbacks and we passed a large fin whale off Bliss on our way out.

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us on our final whale watch of the 2011 season as well as everyone who joined us through out the summer and fall!

We have a charter on Tuesday so hopefully the weather will co-operate and I can bring you some more sightings!

Hey everyone, today was our second to last whale watch of the 2011 season and we had a fantastic afternoon on the Bay of Fundy. We got close looks at 3 humpbacks to be able to get an ID but there were more blows to be seen further to the East. We also saw 5 breaches…all at a distance….but if you were looking in the right direction you would have been able to see the entire body of a humpback completely out of the water!

The 3 humpbacks we got IDs on today were the 2009 calf of Siphon, the 2008 calf of Tether and Darjeeling, Darjeeling is new to us at Quoddy Link and I am trying to find out some more info on this whale.

UPDATE: Darjeeling is the 2001 calf of Scylla and this is the first season this 10 year old has been recorded in the Bay of Fundy.

Darjeeling

Darjeeling

2009 calf of Siphon

Thanks for checking in today….if you are around come and join us tomorrow for our final whale watch of 2011 season, the weather is suppose to be great!!

OK, I REALLY do NOT want this season to end! We had another fantastic day on the water this afternoon. Matt decided to take us offshore to search for humpbacks (we even passed a large finback whale between The Horse and Head Harbour Light). We made our way out and Matt saw a tail go down….we slowly went forward, stopped and waited….and then to our left a right whale popped up! We ended up with at least 2 right whales in the area….maybe 3, we will have to see what the researchers say. We tried to make sure our passengers knew how special this was…to see a north Atlantic right whale, the most endangered of all the large whales with an estimated world wide population of ~470 individuals! It was an amazing trip, yet again! AND, we also saw a minke whale in Head Harbour Passage on our way back home

Here are some pictures from today

Right whale and Campobello Island

V-shaped blow of a right whale

I know it’s blurry but hoped it may help with ID

Thanks so much for checking in, we only have a few days left on the water. To check the times of our departures and availability please call 506-529-2600/1-877-688-2600. The trips are very weather dependent as this time of the season the winds play a HUGE factor.

Cheers and THANK YOU to everyone who joined us today……Gracias, Danke Schoen and Merci Beaucoup!
Danielle

Hello everyone, we had another great whale watch this afternoon with lots of hearty passengers. We took them immediately offshore to search for humpbacks and finbacks….and we certainly found what we were looking for! We located at least 10 humpbacks including Lyrids, Wheat, Ibex, 2008 calf of Peedee and another new whale! We also saw a couple of right whales at a distance, maybe it was the mother and calf pair we had a few days ago.

Here are some photos from today.

Wheat

north Atlantic right whale

Wheat

Lyrids

2008 calf of Peedee

unknown….for now

Ibex (Mr. Burns)

When I got home and started to look at my pictures from today I knew that I had a few tails that I didn’t recognize and when I zoomed in on one photo that was taken at quite a distance my heart sank….I had a photo of Clutter, the humpback who is entangled and who we saw a few days ago. I didn’t notice out there or we would have been able to call Whale Rescue out. I am always so honest on here, if you read this blog often you know I get emotional when it comes to these whales and I just feel so very bad, I am so incredibly upset with myself that I didn’t notice out there that it was Clutter….it’s not a tail I know very well and I hope I get the chance to see this whale again SOON and call Campobello Whale Rescue out to help him. Here is the picture I took today, you can see the line still around the fluke 🙁 I am so sorry Clutter.

Hey everyone, I had the day off today and decided there was no where else I wanted to be but on the water….so I went whale watching! We made our way off towards where we had the humpbacks yesterday and we found 3 humpbacks and about 6 fin whales. We only got good looks at 2 of the humpbacks and one was Cork, a 9 year old female who we simply adore.

Here are a bunch of photos of Cork from today as well as a short video

She came right under the boat and gave our passengers a great look at how big she really is!

This humpback is new to us….ID is still out…

UPDATE: This whale as been IDed as the 2008 calf of Peedee, THANK YOU Jenn

Thanks so much for checking in today, the series of photos below is of Cork and a special regular guest with Quoddy Link, we LOVE our regulars!!

Today was another amazing day….and this morning’s trip left me speechless. We started off Blacks Harbour with more than 10 finbacks….

And then popped up a pair of north Atlantic right whales!!! Such a privilege to see and the people on the boat really understood how special of a sighting this was with only 470 individuals left in the world. I am pretty sure this was a mom and calf pair but will have to wait and see what the researchers say.

Hello everyone, we had another amazing day on the water with humpbacks offshore….there were so many whales out there today, at least 15 humpbacks on our afternoon trip, and 4 new whales for us today as well. The most exciting part for me today was seeing Cork, a female born in 2002 to Mica. Cork is so special to me, we have seen her every season since 2004 and this was the first time this year we have seen her…..yep, I cried. On a much sadder note we did find an entangled whale this morning (our Scout Boat actually spotted it first and called Campobello Whale Rescue out to help). When we left the whales after our afternoon departure they had not relocated the whale yet…..fishing gear entanglements is one of the greatest threats to whales….

Here are some pictures from our 9:30am departure

2008 calf of Tether and our Scout Boat

Lyrids

Fundy Tide Runners and the entangled humpback

Unknown….for now

entangled humpback

2008 calf of Clamp

And here are some pictures from our 1:30pm trip.

Cork

Cork

Cork

Ibex (Mr. Burns), a male born in 1988 to Petrel

2009 calf of Siphon

2008 calf of Tether

2009 calf of Siphon

2008 calf of Tether

2008 calf of Tether

THANK YOU for checking in with us today, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! We do have a trip at 10am and 2pm tomorrow!! Come and join us!!

Hello everyone….well, today the incredible whale sightings continued as we headed offshore again with lots of humpbacks and fin whales to be seen. The amount of feed in the area must be astounding! Today there were at least 10 humpbacks out there and at least 4 large fin whales but we could see many more blows further south and further east!

The humpbacks we IDed today were Fray, Sodapop, the 2008 calves of Tether and Clamp and we also saw Wheat. the 2007 calf of Sickle, today for the first time this season!

Here are a bunch of pictures from today

Sodapop, the white line towards the head is from an entanglement

Sodapop and the Quoddy Link

Wheat

2008 calf of Clamp

2008 calf of Clamp

2008 calf of Tether, note the rake marks on both sides of this whale, most likely from an Orca attack

2008 calf of Tether

Wheat

Fray

Fray

Here are some fin whales we saw today

I also wanted to share some pictures of seals that I took today at Splitting Knife

check out the size of that male grey seal in the centre!

you can see the seal in the back has his hind flippers spread, phocids use their hind flippers to propel themselves forward.

Thanks for checking in today, we are hoping for more great weather and whales tomorrow!

Hello everyone, well the past 2 days have been wonderful! We have been offshore on the Wolves Bank with a number of humpbacks…a bunch I could recognize and a number who’s tails are out for ID. Humpbacks are identified by the black and white pigmentation on the underside of their flukes and they are given names based on those patterns. The shape of their dorsal fins also differs from whale to whale.

Here are some pictures from yesterday, October 7th

A passenger taking a pic of a humpback whale close to the Quoddy Link

Fray

Unknown…..for now

And some from today, October 8th

2008 calf of Clamp

Lyrids

2008 calf of Clamp

Fray

Sonogram

2008 calf of Clamp

Sodapop

I will let you know and update this post as the whales are identified.

Thanks for checking in today….we hope tomorrow brings much more of the same sightings!

Cheers,
Danielle

Blog Editor Profile – Danielle

I have been working for Quoddy Link Marine since 2002. I graduated from the University of Guelph with an honors BSc. in Marine Biology. I'm in charge of photographing, identifying and recording the whales that we see and sharing that information with Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA and the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station on Grand Manan, NB. It's a privilege to have the opportunity to spend the amount of time I do on the water with the whales, they are absolutely amazing creatures.

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